Six employees of China Chemical Engineering Second Construction Group Co based in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, pose for a group photo in front of the Great Wall station in Antarctica. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

A 90-day project to maintain pipelines at the Great Wall Station in Antarctica has recently been initiated with six employees of China Chemical Engineering Second Construction Group Co based in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, arriving at the site.

The pipeline project is the first engineering procurement construction project to be undertaken in Antarctica by a firm from Shanxi.

The Great Wall Station, China's first research station in Antarctica, is situated in the low latitudes of the continent, with 85 percent of the area covered by snow and ice and an absolute minimum temperature of -28.5 Celsius.

It typically rains for around 25 days each month in the area where the station is located, posing significant challenges to the design and construction of the EPC project.

In order to facilitate the project, the group of six male employees will each in turn remove oil using aluminum basins, transfer oil to other oil barrels, and clean up the ice and snow around the tank area before the arrival of new pipelines at the station, according to China Chemical Engineering Second Construction Group Co.